Index# 19426
This seminar will explore some of the most profound questions humans have addressed. Of special concern will be questions about good and evil, justice and equality, freedom and autonomy, and the meaning of human existence. This seminar will be taught by a moral philosopher, and special emphasis will be laid on approaching these questions philosophically. But the seminar aims to combine literary, philosophical, and historical insights and perspectives in addressing these profound issues.
Readings may include Pascal’s Pensees, Kant’s Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave, Nietzsche’s Geneology of Morals, Glover’s Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century, selected stories by Kafka, Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz, Spiegelman’s Maus, and selections from Martin Luther King Jr., including Letter from a Birmingham Jail. All these readings are absolutely first-rate, and some are amongst the most important and influential writings in the history of western thought.
The seminar will require significant amounts of reading and writing, regular attendance, and frequent participation in classroom discussion. It will emphasize critical thinking, careful writing, thoughtful expression, and deep reflection on fundamentally important issues. Students will be required to do regular short homework assignments and two papers (~ 7 - 9 pages and ~ 9 - 12 pages). Papers will be expected to combine rigor, analysis, and arguments with originality, insight, and depth.
This seminar should be one of the most interesting and important classes that you ever take. With your help, it should also be a great deal of fun.
LARRY TEMKIN is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. A specialist in ethics and social and political philosophy, Temkin is one of the world’s foremost experts on equality and the nature of the good. Professor Temkin graduated number one from the University of Wisconsin at Madison with a B.A.-Honors Degree, and received his Ph.D. from Princeton University. Professor Temkin has received numerous honors and awards, including Fellowships from the Danforth Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the National Humanities Center, Harvard University’s Program in Ethics and the Professions, All Souls College Oxford University, the National Institutes of Health, the Australian National University, and Princeton University, where he served as the Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor of Distinguished Teaching. Before moving to Rutgers, Professor Temkin taught at Rice University, where he won seven major teaching awards, including each of Rice’s highest teaching awards, as voted on by peers, current students, and former students. In addition, Temkin received Rutgers’s 2008 School of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education. Temkin is also acutely aware that none of this means diddly-squat to current students. Nor should it!